The traffic heading into Charlotte Sports Park was bumper to bumper Wednesday, causing lengthy delays for fans hoping to attend the Rays’ opening game of the Grapefruit League season.

Michael Kalt, Rays senior vice president, development and business affairs, said opening a new facility compounded the problem since people were not familiar with procedures and the location. Other than the traffic problem — which Kalt allowed was a big problem Wednesday — everything else went well.

“There’s a bunch of things we can do [to correct the traffic problem],” said Kalt, who vowed the traffic would be much improved on Friday when the Rays play their second home game of the spring.

In a nice gesture, the Rays bused all of their employees working in St. Petersburg down to Port Charlotte for the first game.

The parking lot swelled with cars on a crisp day, music played, kids were busy on the playground, and the Rays worked out in front of the crowd estimated by the Rays to be 3,000 strong.

Count Rays manager Joe Maddon among those feeling the good vibe.

“There was a lot of energy in the practice,” Maddon said. “You looked at it, and right away my thoughts were about 2006. … The Rays gear, everybody knows everybody. The way they were just yelling out at our players. It’s part of the cultural change.”

Maddon said his club had great work in front of the loyal Rays fans.

“We did the rundowns in high energy, we did the base running in high energy … it was enjoyable,” Maddon said. “It was nice to have [the fans] out there.”–Bill Chastain

Ravizza helped Matt Garza with his composure last summer and Maddon would like him to work with the team on an ongoing basis. On the front burner, Maddon would like Ravizza to help players “debrief” from 2008, or helping them remember things they were thinking about when critical moments occurred. By doing so, they might be able to repeat or avoid certain behaviors or feelings.

During the offseason, Madden served as a guest lecturer at the Cal State-Fullerton professor’s stress management class and marveled at how well Ravizza’s students related to their professor.

“This is something we’d like to have for years to come,” Maddon said. “We want to have this available to players that need it, both Major and Minor leagues.”

Evan Longoria returned to practice Thursday a day after leaving practice early due to the lingering effects of having his wisdom teeth removed.

“It definitely helped out,” Longoria said. “Just one of those things where they felt it was just better for them to let me rest. I feel better today. It’s still there, but I talked to the dentist yesterday and it was kind of one of those things were there’s no cure for it. So you just kind of wait it out. Let the pain just heal itself, I guess.”

Joe Maddon unveiled his encore to last year’s popular 9=8 slogan during his talk to the players prior to Wednesday’s first full-squad workout. And this year’s slogan is (drum roll): ’09 better than ’08.

“I wanted to re-emphasize that nine will always equal eight in our math, but furthermore this year, ’09 is going to be better than ’08,” Maddon said. “And we want to hopefully be better by at least three games.”

The Rays will be the honorees of a parade Thursday afternoon in Punta Gorda.

The festivities will begin at 2:45 and the entire team is scheduled to attend the parade, which will start on West Marion Ave., head down Taylor St., and ultimately conclude at QualitySelf Storage on Taylor Road.

Immediately following the parade, there will be a “meet-and-greet” at Laishley Park, with interactive games for the kids, autograph signing, merchandise, baseball foods, sodas and beer.

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